Several years ago a leader in the radio industry reminded me of how easily we get distracted by shiny new things. He pointed out that having great radio shows and lucrative advertising deals was seen as so important for a radio station. The first drove listenership and the second drove profits. As a radio station …
Would you switch phones?
Would you replace your iPhone with an Android phone? What if the Android phone was 50% cheaper? 75% cheaper? I recently asked my undergraduate students this question, and all of the iPhone users (most of the class) gave a resounding answer of “No!” I’ve been primarily an Android user since the iPhone 3G, but I’ve …
Do you want to be the best?
A friend recently shared this video with me that captures the extremes Zappos will go to provide the best customer service. Many of us would like to see our company or team emulate this level of customer service. We put out inspirational goals about becoming known for providing the best customer service. Maybe at your …
What are your competitors doing?
What warning signs from your competitors might you be missing? Just before the start of World War II, pilots from Japan set numerous flight records outlined in a recent Air & Space article: “The flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-15 was the first of an impressive series of Japanese distance and endurance flights during the buildup …
Limited by your Leadership?
There’s an infamous bridge, known on the internet as the “11 foot 8” bridge or the “Canopener Bridge”. Here is a quick example of the bridge in question: I think our leadership abilities can similar to this bridge, in that they can limit us and our teams. And they can do so in a destructive …
Do we need ambition?
Ambition is an interesting thing. Too much and we get what Wolsey, in Shakespeare’s “Henry VII” famously states, “Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it?’ Too little ambition and we risk a lackadaisical approach to …
Is it worth the risk?
If you treat risk as the enemy, you’ll achieve nothing as a leader and product manager. This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn. Eric Ries, The Lean Startup Failure, or at least the risk of failure, is how we learn. It’s how we …
What is your product hypothesis?
What do you believe is true about your product that you’re actively trying to prove right now? Maybe it’s a new feature, a new subset of features, or even a whole new product, but you need to identify a hypothesis. The power in calling it a hypothesis, is that it declares to everyone around you …
Why is simplicity so hard?
Why do we produce such complicated products when most would with Ockham’s Razor that “entities should not be multiplied without necessity.” How do things end up so complex when we all want to have the simplest possible solution, design, or implementation that we can come up with? I believe there are a few reasons: What …
A Failure To Manage?
A building that isn’t maintained, that’s allowed to deteriorate, will eventually fall apart. It can be a gradual process that we can ignore at first, but eventually, something catastrophic occurs. Maybe the roof collapses after years of neglect, or a wall gives in due to a small crack left unattended. But the result of failing …